I’m curious about the point you make at the end about us not having enough evidence on rents for new tenancies being driven up while existing tenancies are protected. Would this not be something we can get some insight on by comparing data from asking prices to existing rents? For example, the Daft reports give a national asking-price rent for Q2 of €1,477 nationally, whereas the RTB Standardised Average Rent for Q2 is €1,352. Would this give us a good idea on how much the two parts of the market are diverging or not under RPZs? Thanks!
Thanks very much Killian. That's an interesting idea. It's also true that within the RTB data it is possible to distinguish between new tenancies and existing tenancies (although new tenancies would not only be properties that are new to the market, if you see what I mean). The challenge would be to know if we are comparing like with like. For example, new tenancies might be more expensive for a number of reasons, for example newer properties, better locations etc. New tenancies are also typically more expensive, which I think economists put down to the fact that landlords prefer to keep current tenants at a somewhat lower rent level, rather than taking a risk with a new tenant.
Nevertheless, if we were to see the difference between existing and new tenancies grow over time it might well be indicative of something important, as you say.
The RTB may well have data that allows a distinction between average rents on new tenancies and average tenants on new tenancies within properties newly brought to market. If you could break that data down by property type you could be reasonably sure of a like for like comparison. None of this data is currently publicly available, however.
Hi Michael, excellent read this week, as always.
I’m curious about the point you make at the end about us not having enough evidence on rents for new tenancies being driven up while existing tenancies are protected. Would this not be something we can get some insight on by comparing data from asking prices to existing rents? For example, the Daft reports give a national asking-price rent for Q2 of €1,477 nationally, whereas the RTB Standardised Average Rent for Q2 is €1,352. Would this give us a good idea on how much the two parts of the market are diverging or not under RPZs? Thanks!
Thanks very much Killian. That's an interesting idea. It's also true that within the RTB data it is possible to distinguish between new tenancies and existing tenancies (although new tenancies would not only be properties that are new to the market, if you see what I mean). The challenge would be to know if we are comparing like with like. For example, new tenancies might be more expensive for a number of reasons, for example newer properties, better locations etc. New tenancies are also typically more expensive, which I think economists put down to the fact that landlords prefer to keep current tenants at a somewhat lower rent level, rather than taking a risk with a new tenant.
Nevertheless, if we were to see the difference between existing and new tenancies grow over time it might well be indicative of something important, as you say.
The RTB may well have data that allows a distinction between average rents on new tenancies and average tenants on new tenancies within properties newly brought to market. If you could break that data down by property type you could be reasonably sure of a like for like comparison. None of this data is currently publicly available, however.